The Niagara United Mennonite Church welcomes four-time Gospel Music Award-winning violinist and vocalist Rosemary Siemens from Manitoba for a free concert Thursday, Sept. 8.
Rafael Duerksen, executive director of Winnipeg-based Christian charitable organization Generation Rising, is partnering with the ‘Redbrick Church’ for the concert, a fundraiser to support the White Dove Mennonite School in Honduras.
Duerksen, who grew up in Paraguay, is no stranger to the Niagara area. His children were born at the St. Catharines hospital while he and his wife were living in Wainfleet and he was serving as a youth pastor in that town.
Generation Rising, he says, has previously had fundraising concerts in the region, having brought well-known Canadian Christian singer Steve Bell to St. Catharines in the past. They have also hosted the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, composed of children from Asunción, Paraguay who play musical instruments made from scrap materials collected from their local landfill, for shows at churches in the region.
“We are always trying to find churches that want to connect with us,” he says on the phone from his Winnipeg home. “We knew of this church because some of our donors go there. And we were told people in Niagara-on-the-Lake love concerts.”
Since 2008 Generation Rising has been connecting with local people in countries where education is not always a guaranteed fact of life. Usually, those connections are with existing schools looking to grow by building new classrooms. They work on a co-investment model through which parents who want their children to attend school also put something in.
“We want the parents to think of education as important,” he explains. “It’s always means-tested, though. The parents put in a very small amount, and we subsidize the rest through sponsorships. Families here will sponsor a child to go to school for about $600 a year.”
The cost covers materials, some meals, and medical check-ups that are important in those countries.
The organization is currently working with four schools in Paraguay, three in Nicaragua and three in Honduras.
In that last country, two hurricanes (Eta and Iota) ripped through in the span of only two weeks in 2020. The White Dove Mennonite School is situated in Chamelecon, a poor neighbourhood in San Pedro Sula which has often been called the most dangerous place to live in America, with gang wars affecting almost every family.
Generation Rising had helped erect an additional building, and the school was doing well before the hurricanes came. White Dove flooded with two metres of water twice. The organization came in to help with the clean-up, and also assisted with the restoration of the town.
With the help of Duerksen’s organization, the school has been rebuilt and is thriving, but they now need more room to continue their high school program, where they hope to offer vocational training.
As for Siemens’ involvement, she has played concerts for Generation Rising in the past. Free concerts, with the option for free-will offerings from attendees, is a major source of fundraising for the organization.
“We always look for artists who match the kind of music that we, and people that connect with us, enjoy,” says Duerksen. “Niagara United Mennonite has given us the use of the church for free, but we pay for the artists. The free-will donations help us raise funds for our programs.”
Siemens is a fascinating artist who grew up on a century-old family farm in Plum Coulee, Manitoba and currently lives in Vancouver. Much of her repertoire might be mistakenly referred to as fiddle music, but she plays it all on a 300-year-old violin that was once played in King Louis XIV’s orchestra.
She calls her violin Sparkle, which fits in with one of Siemens’ obsessions — bling. She loves to wear sparkly, rhinestone-studded dresses and even had a hit with a tune called Barefoot ‘n’ Bling from her 2016 album called Plum Coulee, My Home, with her band, The Sweet Sound Revival.
That’s Rosemary’s other obsession — gospel music. On that same album is another song entitled Bring Back the Hymns, and that’s exactly what she has been doing with her weekly live Sunday Hymn Serenades via YouTube.
The series has had more than 100 million views across social media as Siemens features a new Christian hymn every Sunday. She recently received a thank you letter from Queen Elizabeth II for her sax and violin version of God Save The Queen, alongside her husband, Eli Bennett, and was recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for her contributions to the arts in Canada.
“She’s a very good musician. It’s amazing to watch her play the violin,” Duerksen says. “She has deep faith, too. She is really, really passionate to recapture all the hymns she can. I think it comes from her small-town Manitoba roots.”
“It’s very interesting to see someone who is classically trained play this music,” continues Duerksen, “She moves from gospel country to classical to hymns. It’s a mix of everything. She’ll be very engaging, and I think she’ll bring her (pre-school) son up to sing a few songs.”
The Rosemary Siemens concert is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 8. It is a free show and no pre-registration is needed to attend. The Niagara United Mennonite Church is located at 1775 Niagara Stone Road in NOTL.
